Introduction

Cyber power is the ability to use cyberspace to create advantages and influence events in other
operational environments and across the instruments of power. Cyber power debates must focus
on the deep, complex, and intimate integration of cyber technology across public and private
systems, across sectors from media and the economy to defense, and across all key societal
functions. The accumulated experience suggests that attackers have the advantage in cyberspace.
Therefore, incentives for state-sponsored actors to obtain and exploit capabilities are likely to
rise International relations and strategic studies scholars today should theorize about the nature
of cybered interstate conflict.
Cyber security, also referred to as information technology security, focuses on protecting
computers, networks, programs and data from unintended or unauthorized access, change or
destruction. Governments, military, corporations, financial institutions, hospitals and other
businesses collect, process and store a great deal of confidential information on computers and
transmit that data across networks to other computers. With the growing volume and
sophistication of cyber attacks, ongoing attention is required to protect sensitive business and
personal information, as well as safeguard national security.

Relationship between cyber power and cyber security

While cyber power varies between certain states, they can still be grouped based on their relative
similarities. In this case, states are clustered7 based on the relative similarity of the identified
features. As mentioned in earlier sections, relationships between states may be explained through
the use of different IR theories. In relation to this, the theories may also be applied to group
similar states together with respect to their behavior. Such an approach, however, is limited by
(1) the interpretation of the respective theories and (2) focus on the end result of state interaction
rather than the enabling factors. Though IR theories lend themselves well to the problem domain
at hand, the variety of theories available to explain and group states are numerous and are not
necessarily compatible with each other. Consequently, this leads to conflicting perspectives that
cannot yield a unified view of the problem domain. In relation to this, most of the theories
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discussed in previous sections answer the question of why states behave instead of how or
what the enabling factors are surrounding these.
Realism may be applied to cyber conflicts if the unit of analysis were to be changed. His study
argues that the primary assumptions of Realism applies to cyber space. Central to this claim is
the fact that cyber space is itself an anarchic system. Furthermore, it can also be argued that
actors in cyber space act independently of each other to further their interests. This is driven by
the difficulty of attribution presented by cyber space that results in distrust between actors that
eventually lead to unilateral action.
While this demonstrates that cyber space takes the form of the environment that Realism
assumes to thrive in, the understanding of the nature of states has to be tackled as well. Realism
views states in the traditional Westphalian context while in cyber space, there is no clear
distinction of states and sovereignty. To overcome this limitation, Tuthill suggests shifting the
unit of analysis from the state to security itself. Instead of associating actions with the interest of
states, these should instead be viewed relative to the gains or losses in cyber security. While
doing so oversimplifies the problem, it allows academics to analyze cyber conflicts free from the
restraints imposed by questions of state sovereignty
Although grouping states by means of their cyber power provides insight that has yet to be
explored, respective cyber strategies can only be identified if cyber capabilities are analyzed in
the context of past cyber attacks. To understand the relation between cyber security and cyber
power, cyber security is defined as the development and employment of strategic capabilities to
operate in cyber space, integrated and operated with other operational domains, to achieve or
support the achievement of objectives across the elements of national power in support of
national security strategy. As capability eventually translates to cyber power, a states cyber
security is a reflection of its cyber power
The power maintenance cyber security entails that states will actively utilize cyber space as a
means to mitigate perceived threats to their power. Such action would include using malware to
disrupt capabilities of rival states and as a means to demonstrate the initiators capabilities. Such
a strategy, however, can only be utilized if the initiator is confident of its ability to contain or
address any possible escalation that may result from these cyber attacks. As such, Military
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Strength is of crucial consideration for this strategy. Moreover, the reason behind this strategy
can also be explained through realist theory as it is a direct manifestation of a states willingness
to protect its interests.
When viewed in the context of cyber conflicts, liberals recognizes the emergence of non-state
actors and their influence in this problem domain. More importantly, Liberalism views cyber
conflicts as an element of the transnationalization of societies and economies. Consequently, this
establishes cyber conflicts as not being a spontaneous and short-lived phenomenon but rather as
a trend that is most likely to continue in the foreseeable future. From the perspective of
academics such as Joseph Nye, the rise of non-state actors in cyber conflicts in terms of their
participation and capability is a representation of the power diffusion that is being experienced as
a result of the low cost of entry into cyber space
Whereas realists and liberals depict the extremes in analyzing cyber conflicts, constructivists
provide balance and insight as to how this phenomenon emerges rather than attempting to
establish that these are fixed realities. Central to this is the belief that social realities are different
from material realties and are constantly in flux. Material realities such as computer hardware,
security tools, malware3, etc are believed to be permanent and constant factors. What varies is
the manner in which these are applied and the enablers that influence their use.
The balance-maximization cyber security , on the other hand, entails that states will attempt to
maximize the power they currently have in order to gain advantages in both cyber space and the
real world but not at the cost of triggering further conflict that may endanger the advantages
(such as economic) that they currently posses. As such, information theft and malware attacks are
most likely to be launched by states that practice this strategy. While this follows realist ideas
similar to that of power maintenance, it also takes into consideration the implications of being
interconnected and the negative consequences this may have on the initiator if this strategy is not
utilized judiciously
Conclusion
Cyber security is one of the most urgent issues of the day. Computer networks have always been
the target of criminals, and it is likely that the danger of cyber security breaches will only
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increase in the future as these networks expand, but there are sensible precautions that
organizations can take to minimize losses from those who seek to do harm.

References:
Chwan-Hwa (John) Wu and J. David Irwin (2013). Introduction to Computer Networks and
Cybersecurity. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Newton Lee (2015). Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness. Second
Edition. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
P. W. Singer and Allan Friedman (2014). Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to
Know. Oxford: Oxford University Press.